Words on a page that might help me, or you, someday, maybe.

Training

Today I signed up for Swansea half marathon. I was reminded of the fact that I’ve set running goals for this year, and one of those is to run a half marathon in under 1hr 45mins. To be able to achieve that requires me to do two things: 1) sign up to a half marathon, and 2) do more training.

I’m half way there, I guess.

I’m hoping that now I have something to work towards that I’ll find myself more motivated. That’s how it worked with my last half marathon, at least. Because I had an end goal, I had reason to continue training. And then when I’d finished my half marathon (1:57:28) in September, I suddenly had nothing to aim towards.

That lack of end goal meant that my training schedule dropped over winter. As well as the fact that, y’know… it was winter.

Swansea is a completely flat half marathon, where you run six and a half miles along the beach in one direction, and then six and a half miles along the beach back in the other direction. It’s a perfect route for a personal best time.

For my last (and first) half marathon, I just wanted to beat two hours – which I did. But I finished the race feeling that I could’ve done a lot better. And I probably should have.

I’m told that I should be aiming for faster than 1hr 45 as well, considering I’m six foot, ten stone, and twenty-three. This should be the absolute prime of my running life. And it could be, if I put the effort in. The people I run with at work are all 10/20 years older than me, but can run better, further and faster than me.

I just need to put the effort in. And I need to train on weekends.

I’ve been out the past two weekends, so I’m getting there. Somewhere. Somehow.

The truth is that I know I should be a lot better than I am, and that frustrates me. And it’s annoying, because like all of my failures in life I know that it can be fixed by just putting the work in. You’ve just gotta work for it, and it’s easy.